Renewing the church

Rarely, in recent years, can there have been so much theological discussion on the front pages of our newspapers, and on our TV’s and radios, as there has been in the last 2 weeks. Whatever the right and wrongs of the decisions made by the leadership of St Paul’s Cathedral, Jesus is being spoken about publicly in a way I have never seen before. And it’s not just his name that is being invoked – it’s also his message, and it is very striking that, whatever the media is saying about the church, the perception that Jesus is there for the poor and destitute is widely assumed and accepted. Jesus is seen as a positive force – a challenge to power and to those who control the financial purse strings.

And that message is widely seen as being deeply relevant for us today – even if the church is seen as irrelevant. Jesus remains a figure that people look to, and his message of change and hope is still alive in the hearts and minds of British people.

So perhaps one good thing that is emerging from this whole situation – a situation which is still changing very rapidly – is that it reminds us in the church that it is Jesus we follow, not the church. In a strange way, we might come to see that the Holy Spirit has been at work in the protest camp, in part to remind the church what it exists for – which is to follow Jesus.

Archbishop Rowan once defined the church as ‘what happens when people meet Jesus‘. Ironically, it may be that the protesters on the steps of St Paul’s are actually helping us to meet Jesus afresh, and in doing so are helping us to be church again.

Looking Ahead

It was wonderful to be together with 50 people from our six churches yesterday evening to introduce and launch our Looking Ahead process. During the evening we explored the huge changes that are taking place in our society,  those that affect the church in general, and those that affect the churches that make up The Six in particular. Every generation faces change, and every generation has to grapple with the anxiety that change brings, and we are no different today.

The difference for us however, is that the range and impact of those changes on the Church – as we have known it in this country over hundreds of years – poses a new level of challenge. A challenge which must be faced if our churches are to continue witnessing to the life and work of Jesus in our villages and communities for another 500 years. The particular combination of factors that face us today, including individualism, the primacy of personal choice, a suspicion of authority and what has been called ‘pick and mix religion’ in which anyone can assemble different elements of a wide variety of faiths and beliefs into an individualised spirituality, mean Christian communities must urgently ask questions about how to proclaim the message of our unchanging God in a changing world.

This is the challenge that is before us in The Six – but it is not a challenge that we face alone. Two thousand years of Christianity bear witness to God’s faithfulness to his people. We have not been abandoned by God. God’s unchanging nature is as much about his unchanging faithfulness and involvement as any other aspect of who he is. It was, after all, God who called the earliest disciples of Jesus to follow him; the same God who enabled small groups to come together in Ephesus, Corinth, Rome and many other cities around the Mediterranean; God who has called out new ways of being church from holy people over the centuries, and the same God who is calling out to us today.

As we start to Look Ahead in a new way, may we know the presence of our unchanging God as he calls us to follow him in our changing world.

Talking about God

There are lots of ways to think about faith – as a relationship, a journey, a set of beliefs or a way of life. Another way is to see it as a conversation -as being part of a conversation with and about God. Being a Christian means joining a 2,000 year old (and even older in some ways) conversation about how God is involved in our lives and in the life of his whole creation.

John’s gospel opens with the haunting words “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the word was God”, and through the life brought by the Word of God, we are able to join our words with The Word, and to join the conversation brought into being by God. It is Jesus, the Word of God, who makes it possible for us to know  God and to speak about him, and we are all called to join in.

This new blog is a new way for us to be part of that conversation – 4 people from our six churches, each writing from a different perspective – will share their thoughts and reflections on faith, church and God. As they do so, anyone is invited to join in with a comment, response or further thought. Christians have been talking about how God is at work in our midst for 2,000 years now. Do join in.

Changing times

I called in, on the spur of the moment, to see a friend.  ‘She’s in the Church, clearing out the vestry,’ said her husband. I went to find her, up the lane, through the leafy churchyard, and in by a creaky old side door.  She’s recently taken on the role of Church Warden. A young, homeless lad was cooking himself a poached egg on toast in the church kitchen.  ‘He’s been helping me have a clear out’ she explained. ‘There’s a wedding tomorrow and there’s dust and bat droppings everywhere!’  She sounded a bit desperate.  ‘Don’t you have a cleaning rota here?’ I asked, as I grabbed some spray polish and a duster.  ‘Yes’, she replied, above the roar of the angry Hoover, but she’s 84 with a bad knee, and the other one’s on holiday!’
Some weird electronic music was emanating from the West end of the building.  Her son, home from University, earphones almost disappearing in the frizz of long hair, was completely lost in the strange, extra terrestrial noise he had created. ‘Good acoustics!’ he explained, removing his head – set for a moment to smile ‘Hello’.
She showed me into the disused vestry, which stored vases, paint pots, ladders and broken chairs, but now, it had been cleared, and there was a rug on the floor, a Bible and a candle on the polished table. What a transformation!  ‘But look at this,’ she said, pointing upwards to the wall behind the ladders.  There, still festooned with cobwebs and bird droppings, was an ancient triptych, which used to have pride of place behind the High altar.  The words of the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Creed were beautifully scripted on it in gold leaf.  ‘It’s a sign of the times, isn’t it?’ I said, ‘the basic essential elements of our faith, hidden away, out of sight.’ ‘D’you know what I’m going to do?’ she mused, ‘I’m going to ask the PCC if this could be restored and reinstated, and if they say ‘Yes, I believe it will be a prophetic sign for the future of the church!’  We stood there, amid the hard, lavender polished pews, soon to be removed and replaced with comfy chairs, and we prayed for God’s will to be done, and His Word to be central in the Church;  then we walked out through the great arched doorway into the rain and bright sunshine, and a beautiful rainbow.  ‘Tom’s just texted to say there’s a steak sandwich and strawberries and cream waiting for us!’ God is good!

Jane Gransden